$5 Instant Amazon Instant Video Credit (KSO)

This offer for those with a Kindle Fire with Special Offers only. On your Kindle Fire with Special Offers (and presumably on the HD, which I don't have yet, since I ordered the large memory size), swipe the top menu to the left until you see Offers, then press/click in order to see the current offers. At the bottom, you should see the offer to Get $5 to spend on Select Titles. Click on the offer, then on the orange button to add the credit directly to your account. It's nearly instant and the next screen offers to take you to Amazon so you can spend that credit away! If you miss that screen, though, don't worry - a document about the offer will appear on your home page.

It looks like you can shop the entire Instant Video Store (rentals and purchases) and just check for any individual product that is excluded from this (and all other) promotions, on the product detail page (not that I saw any that were excluded and I checked a couple of dozen pages). The credit expires Sept 29, so be sure to use it quickly.

I'm half-tempted by The Pirates!, especially with the ebook being featured at Amazon today (but only a super-deal for those in the UK) and with tomorrow being Talk Like a Pirate Day (a local donut chain is giving them away to all those dress up or just talk like a pirate in the store.

Don't forget to use your $5 MP3 credit - it expires Sept 24!

Amazon Digital Weekend Deals

The Kindle Weekend Deal is Deja Vu ($1.99), the nineteenth (and next-to-most recent) title in the Sisterhood series by Fern Michaels.

Book Description
Celebrate With The Sisterhood

Thanks to a presidential pardon, the Sisterhood can put their fugitive days behind them and resume their lives in peace. Still, all the women admit that lately things are a little too calm and peaceful. Meeting up for the first time in months to celebrate Kathryn's birthday--in the City of Sin, no less--seems like the perfect antidote.

But before they can kick up their heels something too big to pass up is dropped into their laps. The time has come to deal with Enemy #1, a/k/a Hank Jellicoe. Wanted by the FBI, the CIA, and Homeland Security for starters, President Connor herself has run out of patience with their lack of results. Only the Sisterhood, with their special blend of guts, imagination, and friends in all places are capable of pulling off the impossible--of hunting down this monster and taking him out once and for all...

Other vote winners on sale this weekend are Ferris Bueller's Day Off (video), The Complete Billie Holiday (mp3) and Nancy Drew: Danger on Deception Island (game). It looks like this is the last weekend of the promotion, as there was nothing to vote upon for next week.

Get $2 in Instant Videos for Free

If you have a Facebook account, you can claim a $2 Instant Videos credit by letting Amazon post to your wall. You enter a movie you like (or whatever you want posted to your wall) and click; the credit is then added to your account automatically (no codes to keep track of).

Some of the Fine Print

• Promotional credits must be redeemed by 11:59 PM PST on May 29, 2012. (that's today, guys and gals!)
• Limit one promotional credit per Amazon customer
• Amazon Instant Video is available to customers located and with billing addresses in the United States.

ETA: You need to sign up for the credit today and use it today, as well. However, if you purchase a video, you can watch it at any time and most rentals give you 30 days to start watching them (a few don't; you can always check in the Rights & Requirements section to see the rules for each video). I'm combining this credit with a $3 credit I had (that expires soon) to grab two rentals that I can watch anytime in the next month!

Amazon Digital Weekend Deals

The Kindle Weekend Deal is TimeRiders ($1.99), by Alex Scarrow. This is the first novel in his very popular YA TimeRiders series, only two of which have shown up on Kindle, so far.

Book Description
Maddy should have died in a plane crash. Liam should have died at sea when the Titanic sank. Sal should have died in a tragic fire. But a mysterious man whisked them away to safety.

Maddy, Liam, and Sal quickly learn that time travel is no longer just a hope for the future; it is a dangerous reality. And they weren't just rescued from their terrible fates. . . they were recruited for the agency of TimeRiders created to protect the world from those seeking to alter the course of history for personal gain. By reliving the highly documented events in New York City on 9/11, they can closely monitor history for any deviations-large or small. When just such a change is detected, they are alerted that a threat is at hand unleashing the evil of the Nazis to wreak havoc with Earth's present and future. Can Maddy, Liam, and Sal fulfill their destinies as keepers of time to save the world from utter destruction?

An exhilarating adventure that shifts readers back in time to Nazi Germany and then forward into an ever-changing present.

Look out for the other books in this series: Day of the Predator and The Doomsday Code!

Other vote winners on sale this weekend are The Dark Knight (video), Norah Jones' Come Away With Me (mp3) and A Game of Thrones - Genesis (game). Don't forget to vote on next week's deals.

If you are a gamer, be sure to also check out Amazon's Game Downloads Mayhem Event, with 12 days of deals on some of the more popular games of 2011, ranging from Sims to hardcore gaming. For the more casual gamer, there's also the $2.99 Casual Games Mayhem Event, which has downloadable puzzles, matching, strategy and action/arcade games to choose from (the kind I keep on the netbook to play when not at home). Most have free trials, so you can test to see if they'll work on your hardware, first, before buying to keep. I've seen and ending date of both May 28 and May 29 on these sales, so don't wait until the very last day on these.

Kindle Weekend Deals

The Kindle Weekend Deal (for at least the next few hours) is The Hidden Language of Baseball: How Signs and Sign-Stealing Have Influenced the Course of Our National Pastime ($1.99), by Paul Dickson. Other vote winners to be on sale this weekend are Erin Brockovich (video), Nirvana (mp3) and Rollercoaster Tycoon 3: Platinum (game). Be sure to vote on next week's deal (I'm hoping for the wine country mystery for the book).

Book Description
Baseball is set apart from other sports by many things, but few are more distinctive than the intricate systems of coded language that govern action on the field and give baseball its unique appeal. During a nine-inning game, more than 1,000 silent instructions are given-from catcher to pitcher, coach to batter, fielder to fielder, umpire to umpire-and without this speechless communication the game would simply not be the same. Baseball historian Paul Dickson examines for the first time the rich legacy of baseball's hidden
language, offering fans everywhere a smorgasbord of history and anecdote.

Whether detailing the origins of the hit-and-run, the true story behind the home run that gave "Home Run" Baker his nickname, Bob Feller's sign-stealing telescope, Casey Stengel's improbable method of signaling his bullpen, the impact of sign stealing on the Giants' miraculous comeback in 1951, or the pitches Andy Pettitte tipped off that altered the momentum of the 2001 World Series, Dickson's research is as thorough as his stories are entertaining. A roster of baseball's greatest names and games, past and present, echoes throughout, making The Hidden Language of Baseball a unique window on the history of our national pastime.

It may be a glitch, but right now all four of the MP3 albums that you can vote on for next weekend's $5 deal are selling for $5 apiece. I'd just grab ones you want now and forget voting in that category.

• Come Away With Me, by Norah Jones
• The Lumineers, by The Lumineers
*** NOTE: If you buy this one from your Android device or Kindle Fire, using the Amazon MP3 App, you get another $2 off, so it's only $3 total!
• Scars & Stories, by The Fray
• Tuskegee, by Lionel Richie

Bargain Book/Game/Music/Movie Roundup

Amazon has started running a Weekend Deal on digital content, including Kindle Books, Game Downloads, MP3 Downloads and Instant Videos. You can vote on the upcoming deal thru the week and then use the same link to check on the results each Friday. I've added a link on the sidebar, directly under the free MP3 of the day, so you can easily find your way back to the page each week.

I'm going to list the deals for the weekend in this post, then add a few "with Bonus Materials" editions of books that are currently marked down in the Kindle store. Bonuses are usually simply previews of upcoming titles, which can be ignored and these volumes are usually bargain priced to entice you to try a new author.

Anathem ($1.99 Kindle, Google), by Neal Stephenson. Should be price matched elsewhere, as it's an Agency title. The only reason I'm not buying? I already have it in my library.

Book Description
Anathem, the latest invention by the New York Times bestselling author of Cryptonomicon and The Baroque Cycle, is a magnificent creation: a work of great scope, intelligence, and imagination that ushers readers into a recognizable -- yet strangely inverted -- world.

Fraa Erasmas is a young avout living in the Concent of Saunt Edhar, a sanctuary for mathematicians, scientists, and philosophers, protected from the corrupting influences of the outside "saecular" world by ancient stone, honored traditions, and complex rituals. Over the centuries, cities and governments have risen and fallen beyond the concent's walls. Three times during history's darkest epochs violence born of superstition and ignorance has invaded and devastated the cloistered mathic community. Yet the avout have always managed to adapt in the wake of catastrophe, becoming out of necessity even more austere and less dependent on technology and material things. And Erasmas has no fear of the outside -- the Extramuros -- for the last of the terrible times was long, long ago.

Now, in celebration of the week-long, once-in-a-decade rite of Apert, the fraas and suurs prepare to venture beyond the concent's gates -- at the same time opening them wide to welcome the curious "extras" in. During his first Apert as a fraa, Erasmas eagerly anticipates reconnecting with the landmarks and family he hasn't seen since he was "collected." But before the week is out, both the existence he abandoned and the one he embraced will stand poised on the brink of cataclysmic change.

Powerful unforeseen forces jeopardize the peaceful stability of mathic life and the established ennui of the Extramuros -- a threat that only an unsteady alliance of saecular and avout can oppose -- as, one by one, Erasmas and his colleagues, teachers, and friends are summoned forth from the safety of the concent in hopes of warding off global disaster. Suddenly burdened with a staggering responsibility, Erasmas finds himself a major player in a drama that will determine the future of his world -- as he sets out on an extraordinary odyssey that will carry him to the most dangerous, inhospitable corners of the planet . . . and beyond.

Beethoven: The Complete Symphony Collection ($5.00), performed by The London Symphony Orchestra. 5:40:00 of music and overwhelming 5 star reviews.


Unforgiven ($1.99 Rent, $9.99 Buy)

Movie Description
Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman play retired outlaws who pick up their guns one last time to collect a bounty.

The Great Tree ($1.99 PC or MAC download), by Amazon

Game Description
Fly into a magical world of mystery and adventure told through beautiful drawings and mesmerizing gameplay with Reflexive's enchanting game: The Great Tree! When the Pollen Collectors are bewitched, the faeries' survival rests upon the shoulders of their children. This quest will lead them directly into the dangers of the forest, where there are whispers of something sinister lurking in the shadows. The tree's life runs short. Set forth now to save the faeries in this grown-up tale of good and evil!

The Witch Doctor's Wife with Bonus Material ($0.99), by Tamar Myers, is a pre-order (credit card on file required, but not charged until shipped). Get a sample from the full price edition ($9.99).

Book Description
For a limited time at a special price, enjoy beloved mystery writer Tamar Myers' novel The Witch Doctor's Wife—an enthralling tale of duty, greed, danger, and miracles in equatorial Africa. As a bonus, you get an excerpt from The Headhunter's Daughter and The Boy Who Stole the Leopard's Spots, on sale May 8, 2012.

The Congo beckons to young Amanda Brown in 1958, as she follows her missionary calling to the mysterious "dark continent" far from her South Carolina home. But her enthusiasm cannot cushion her from the shock of a very foreign culture—where competing missionaries are as plentiful as flies, and oppressive European overlords are busy stripping the land of its most valuable resource: diamonds.

Little by little, Amanda is drawn into the lives of the villagers in tiny Belle Vue—and she is touched by the plight of the local witch doctor, a man known as Their Death, who has been forced to take a second job as a yardman to support his two wives. But when First Wife stumbles upon an impossibly enormous uncut gem, events are set in motion that threaten to devastate the lives of these people Amanda has come to admire and love—events that could lead to nothing less than murder.

Spin with Bonus Material ($1.99), by Catherine McKenzie, is a also a pre-order. Get a sample from the full price edition ($9.99).

Book Description
For a limited time at a special price, enjoy Catherine McKenzie's charming and humorous novel Spin, along with excerpts to her upcoming new novels, Arranged, on sale May 15, 2012, and Forgotten, on sale September 4, 2012.

When Kate Sandford lands an interview at her favorite music magazine, The Line, it's the chance of a lifetime. So Kate goes out to celebrate—and shows up still drunk to the interview the next morning. It's no surprise that she doesn't get the job, but her performance has convinced the editors that she'd be perfect for an undercover assignment for their gossip rag. All Kate has to do is follow "It Girl" Amber Sheppard into rehab. If she can get the inside scoop—and complete the thirty-day program—they'll reconsider her for the position at The Line. Kate takes the assignment, but when real friendships start to develop, she has to decide if what she has to gain is worth the price she'll have to pay.

I've mentioned Reckless With a Bonus Excerpt ($0.99), by Andrew Gross, before. It's out now (and still worth getting).

Book Description
For a limited time and a special price, discover Reckless, the New York Times best-selling novel by Andrew Gross, plus the first three chapters from his next novel, 15 Seconds, a thrilling, fast-paced story of a man, on the run, desperate to prove his innocence and to save his family’s lives. 15 Seconds will be available wherever books are sold July 10th.
In Reckless, Ty Hauck hunts the murderer of a friend--and steps into the crosshairs of a sinister conspiracy.

Savannah Blues with Bonus Material ($3.99), by Mary Kay Andrews, is a another pre-order. Get a sample from the full price edition ($9.99). I think I'll order this one, just for the area in which it is set (where I used to roam, in a past life).

Book Description
This special e-book edition of Savannah Blues includes a free excerpt of Mary Kay Andrews's latest novel, Spring Fever!

Landing a catch like Talmadge Evans III got Eloise “Weezie” Foley a jewel of a town house in Savannah's historic district. Divorcing Tal got her exited to the backyard carriage house, where she has launched a spite-fest with Tal's new fiancÉe, the elegant Caroline DeSantos.

An antiques picker, Weezie combs Savannah's steamy back alleys and garage sales for treasures when she's not dealing with her loopy relatives or her hunky ex-boyfriend. But an unauthorized sneak preview at a sale lands Weezie smack in the middle of magnolia-scented murder, mayhem . . . and more. Dirty deals simmer all around her—just as her relationship with the hottest chef in town heats up and she finds out how delicious love can be the second time around.

My Weird School 4-Book Collection with Bonus Material ($9.99), by Dan Gutman, works out to just under $2.50/volume for a series that usually is about $3.99 apiece. If you have small kids and you want them to love reading, definitely get them some of the titles in this series (one reviewer mentioned that her child read this book 22 times!).

Book Description
Don’t miss out on an exciting new My Weird School ebook collection, complete with the first four books in Dan Gutman’s seriously hilarious and seriously zany series. The collection includes My Weird School #1: Miss Daisy Is Crazy!, My Weird School #2: Mr. Klutz Is Nuts!, My Weird School #3: Mrs. Roopy Is Loopy!, My Weird School #4: Ms. Hannah Is Bananas!, and a bunch of seriously strange activities. The activities include a checklist, a maze, and a word scramble.

Meet a teacher who eats bonbons, a principal who kisses pigs, a librarian who thinks she's George Washington, and an art teacher who dresses up in pot holders! They're all inside this collection! They must be getting pretty crowded in there!

Warriors 3-Book Collection with Bonus Material ($12.99), by Erin Hunter, works out to $4.33/title, plus you get some bonus maps.

Book Description
For generations, four Clans of wild cats have shared the forest according to the laws laid down by their warrior ancestors. But now the ThunderClan cats are in grave danger, and sinister ShadowClan grows stronger every day. Noble warriors are dying—and some deaths are more mysterious than others. Into the midst of this turmoil comes an ordinary house cat named Rusty . . . who may turn out to be the bravest warrior of them all.

Enter the world of Warriors with this great introduction to Erin Hunter’s best-selling series: Warriors #1: Into the Wild, Warriors #2: Fire and Ice, and Warriors #3: Forest of Secrets. In addition, this bundle includes bonus materials like trivia, territory maps, sneak peeks at other Warriors books, and a new short story from Erin Hunter.

A Series of Unfortunate Events Collection: Books 1-13 with Bonus Material ($79.99), by Lemony Snicket, is a bit steep for a "bargain" and only works out to about $6.15/title (which is a bit of a discount from the $6.99 individually). Nowhere near the bargain long-time readers got when almost the entire series was mistakenly listed as free for a few hours, but this is the only way (that I can see) that you get the included bonus materials. If you have kids and don't have any of the books, it's definitely one to consider.

Book Description
If you have not read anything about the Baudelaire orphans, then before you read even one more sentence, you should know this: Violet, Klaus, and Sunny are kindhearted and quick-witted, but their lives are filled with bad luck and misery. All of the stories about these three children are unhappy and wretched and will most likely fill you with deep despair.

From The Bad Beginning to The End, this comprehensive collection with unfortunate bonus material that may or may not include trivia questions, character profiles, and several very sad sentences is the only choice for people who simply cannot get enough of a bad thing!

Bargain Book Roundup

First, a few quick updates:

Moneyball is now 25 cents in the Kindle store!

The Australian Google Book Deal is on An Idiot Abroad: The Travel Diaries of Karl Pilkington by Karl Pilkington, Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, which looks like it has dropped to $1.05 for Aussies in the Kindle store.

The only movie rental match I've seen with the Play promotion: Vicky Cristina Barcelona is 25 cents to rent from Amazon (which means it can be watched on Roku!

Ordinary Thunderstorms ($0.99), by William Boyd, is on a great mark down for those of us in the US (those in the UK can instead get Restless for $0.31 Main/£0.20 UK).

Book Description
One May evening in London, Adam Kindred, a young climatologist in town for a job interview, is feeling good about the future as he sits down for a meal at a little Italian bistro. He strikes up a conversation with a solitary diner at the next table, who leaves soon afterward. With horrifying speed, this chance encounter leads to a series of malign accidents, through which Adam loses everything—home, family, friends, job, reputation, passport, credit cards, cell phone—never to get them back.

The police are searching for him. There is a reward for his capture. A hired killer is stalking him. He is alone and anonymous in a huge, pitiless modern city. Adam has nowhere to go but down—underground. He decides to join that vast army of the disappeared and the missing who throng London’s lowest levels as he tries to figure out what to do with his life and struggles to understand the forces that have made it unravel so spectacularly. Adam's quest will take him all along the river Thames, from affluent Chelsea to the gritty East End, and on the way he will encounter all manner of London's denizens—aristocrats, prostitutes, evangelists, and policewomen—and version after new version of himself.

Ordinary Thunderstorms, William Boyd's electric follow-up to his award-winning Restless, is a profound and gripping novel about the fragility of social identity, the corruption at the heart of big business, and the secrets that lie hidden in the filthy underbelly of every city.

Warriors: Omen of the Stars #1: The Fourth Apprentice ($1.08 Kindle AU), by Erin Hunter, is on sale for Australian Kindlers only.

Book Description
After the sharp-eyed jay and the roaring lion, peace will come. . . .

Four warrior Clans have shared the land around the lake as equals for many moons. But a prophecy foretells that three ThunderClan cats will hold the power of the stars in their paws. Jayfeather and Lionblaze know that they are two of the cats in the prophecy. Now the brothers must wait for a sign from StarClan to discover the identity of the third cat.

Meanwhile, Dovekit and Ivykit—kin of the great leader Firestar—are poised to become ThunderClan apprentices. Soon one sister will have an ominous dream—and will begin to realize that she possesses mystical skills unmatched by any other cat.

In the midst of a cruel season that threatens the lives of all four warrior Clans, bonds will be forged, promises made, and three young cats will start to unravel the secrets that bind them together.

House of Thieves ($4.99), by Kaui Hart Hemmings, contains the short story "The Minor Wars," which was later expanded into her debut novel The Descendants, which was adapted into George Clooney’s Oscar-nominated film. This collection of short stories is an Amazon exclusive.

Book Description
In her debut collection of short stories, House of Thieves, Kaui Hart Hemmings has set the magnificent islands of Hawaii as a backdrop to describe bold frustrated adolescents and adults as they wrestle with themselves and each other over the age-old issues of deprived freedom, misguided love, being cool, and being true; and as they experience together the loneliness of feeling miserable in paradise.

The nine stories in House of Thieves are told from varied points of view--a father, a child, a young woman, an adolescent boy, and more. Rooted in the circumstances and situations of island people, they reveal the mundane cycle of small triumphs and tragedies that make up the lives of ordinary people everywhere. A single mother's discovery of a pornographic magazine in her thirteen-year-old son's room sends her down a spiral of jealousy that ultimately guarantees her loss of him. A middle-aged man struggles with this secret hatred for his brother and finds a way to enact a revenge whose absolute destructiveness promises to heal him. A white man who is left by his native Hawaiian wife struggles to understand why he and his daughter, abandoned together, feel such deep resentment for each other. A boy who insists on the illusion of his happy family suddenly recognizes his father's lack of real love and comes to "the understanding that certain things are severed and they can't grow back again, the sorrow from loving a place that doesn't love you back."

Hemmings' tart, confident voice plunges headfirst into the unfamiliar world of a Hawaii far from the tourist track, providing glimpses of the islands' divisive racial and class issues, as well as the proud heritage of kings and warriors and the legacy of colonialists and missionaries. Her unceremonious dealing with issues like drugs, sex, and abandonment and her entirely unself-conscious prose allow her stories to wash effortlessly like an ocean wave, portraying with unsentimental insight and wry humor the complex forces that bind family members together in love and hate.

Odd Jobs ($0.99), by Ben Lieberman, is self-published, but he apparently managed to get a good quote for the cover from James Patte

Book Description
College student Kevin Davenport is working any and every odd job to make it through school. He discovers who killed his father while working at the corrupt, mob-controlled, Kosher World Meat factory. Now he will stop at nothing to prevent the killers from ruining other families and to get his revenge, as well. Conventional techniques, such as going to the police, have not only been ineffective for others, these methods have proven to be virtual suicide.

So all bets are off and Davenport uses the grittiest and strangest methods as tools to bring down the killers. The characters, misadventures and odd jobs will have the readers laughing. But the hazard is real and Davenport is in over his head.

The Lonely Polygamist ($3.99), by Brady Udall, looks pretty interesting and would be a huge book in print (603 pages), so is much easier to read as an ebook.

Book Description
Golden Richards, husband to four wives, father to twenty-eight children, is having the mother of all midlife crises. His construction business is failing, his family has grown into an overpopulated mini-dukedom beset with insurrection and rivalry, and he is done in with grief: due to the accidental death of a daughter and the stillbirth of a son, he has come to doubt the capacity of his own heart. Brady Udall, one of our finest American fiction writers, tells a tragicomic story of a deeply faithful man who, crippled by grief and the demands of work and family, becomes entangled in an affair that threatens to destroy his family’s future. Like John Irving and Richard Yates, Udall creates characters that engage us to the fullest as they grapple with the nature of need, love, and belonging.

Beautifully written, keenly observed, and ultimately redemptive, The Lonely Polygamist is an unforgettable story of an American family—with its inevitable dysfunctionality, heartbreak, and comedy—pushed to its outer limits.

Gone ($2.99), by Michael Grant, is apocalyptic fiction for the teen market. Check your Kindle library on this one, though, as a special edition of this was sold in March of last year and you won't see on the main product page if you bought that edition.

Book Description
In the blink of an eye. Everyone disappears. GONE.

Except for the young. Teens. Middle schoolers. Toddlers. But not one single adult. No teachers, no cops, no doctors, no parents. Just as suddenly, there are no phones, no internet, no television. No way to get help. And no way to figure out what's happened.

Hunger threatens. Bullies rule. A sinister creature lurks. Animals are mutating. And the teens themselves are changing, developing new talents—unimaginable, dangerous, deadly powers—that grow stronger by the day.

It's a terrifying new world. Sides are being chosen, a fight is shaping up. Townies against rich kids. Bullies against the weak. Powerful against powerless. And time is running out: On your birthday, you disappear just like everyone else...

Starman: The Truth Behind the Legend of Yuri Gagarin ($3.62), by Piers Bizony and Jamie Doran

Book Description
On April 12, 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first person in history to leave the Earth's atmosphere and venture into space. His flight aboard a Russian Vostok rocket lasted only 108 minutes, but at the end of it he had become the most famous man in the world. Back on the ground, his smiling face captured the hearts of millions around the globe. Film stars, politicians and pop stars from Europe to Japan, India to the United States vied with each other to shake his hand.

Despite this immense fame, almost nothing is known about Gagarin or the exceptional people behind his dramatic space flight. Starman tells for the first time Gagarin's personal odyssey from peasant to international icon, his subsequent decline as his personal life began to disintegrate under the pressures of fame, and his final disillusionment with the Russian state. President Kennedy's quest to put an American on the Moon was a direct reaction to Gagarin's achievement--yet before that successful moonshot occurred, Gagarin himself was dead, aged just thirty-four, killed in a mysterious air crash. Publicly the Soviet hierarchy mourned; privately their sighs of relief were almost audible, and the KGB report into his death remains secret.

Entwined with Gagarin's history is that of the breathtaking and highly secretive Russian space program - its technological daring, its triumphs and disasters. In a gripping account, Jamie Doran and Piers Bizony reveal the astonishing world behind the scenes of the first great space spectacular, and how Gagarin's flight came frighteningly close to destruction.

Google Play 25 Cent Specials

Reservoir Dogs ($2.99 Amazon, $0.25 Google) is todays's Google Movie Rental Deal (which Amazon never matches, it seems).

Moneyball ($8.29 Kindle, $0.25 Google), by Michael Lewis, is the Google Book Deal today. I picked this one up a while back on one of Amazon's KSO deals, but I've reported the lower price on both editions, in hopes it will drop for the rest of you.

If you are in the UK, grab Restless ($0.31 Main/£0.20 UK), by William Boyd (can't link to Google UK

Book Description
Billy Beane, the Oakland A’s general manager, is leading a revolution. Reinventing his team on a budget, he needs to outsmart the richer teams. He signs undervalued players whom the scouts consider flawed but who have a knack for getting on base, scoring runs, and winning games. Moneyball is a quest for the secret of success in baseball and a tale of the search for new baseball knowledge—insights that will give the little guy who is willing to discard old wisdom the edge over big money.

Guns N' Roses Greatest Hits ($0.25 Amazon, Google) is today's Google Music Deal. This one is a no-brainer must-buy for any GnR fans out there. Be sure to also visit the main Google Music page, where you can grab a free download of Concierto De Aranjuez: II. Adagio ($1.99 Amazon), by Joaquin Rodrigo.


TuneIn Radio Pro ($0.25 Amazon, Google) is the Google Android App of the Day.

App Description
TuneIn is a new way to listen to the world through live, local, and global radio from wherever you are. Whether you want music, sports, news, or current events, TuneIn offers over 50,000 stations and 1.2 million on-demand streams for you to choose from. The TuneIn Radio Pro app for Android puts this entire experience in the palm of your hand, with the added benefit of recording what you're listening to (this requires a memory card).

With TuneIn, it's easy to find your favorite hometown station, music from Berlin that reminds you of when you lived there, or reggae from Kingston to get you in the mood for your beach vacation. TuneIn makes you feel like you are right there with the people and places that are important to you. From finding what's local to discovering new stations from around the world, TuneIn brings you to where you want to be.

Upgrade to TuneIn Radio Pro to record what you're listening to. Just search "TuneIn Radio Pro" in Amazon's Appstore for Android.

Learn more, listen online, and get help at TuneIn's website. You can also like TuneIn on Facebook and follow its Twitter feed.

Google Play 25 Cent Specials

Newberry Medal winner The Giver ($0.25 Kindle, Google), by Lois Lowry, is today's Google Play Book deal for those in the US. If you are in Canada, it's apparently Wheat Belly: Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight, and Find Your Path Back To Health ($9.45 Kindle, ?? Google), by William Davis MD (which Amazon hasn't price matched at all), in the UK it's Rules of the Game ($0.31 Main/£0.20 UK), Neil Strauss (I can't get a link to the Google book on this one) and for those in Australia, it's Cocaine Blues: Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries ($1.05 Kindle, ?? Google), by Kerry Greenwood.

The Giver
Jonas's world is perfect. Everything is under control. There is no war or fear of pain. There are no choices. Every person is assigned a role in the community. Jonas lives in a seemingly ideal world.

When Jonas turns 12 he is singled out to receive special training from The Giver. The Giver alone holds the memories of the true pain and pleasure of life. Not until he is given his life assignment as the Receiver does Jonas begin to understand the dark secrets behind this fragile community. Now, it is time for Jonas to receive the truth. There is no turning back.

Today's 25 cent movie rental from Google is Sunshine Cleaning ($2.99 Amazon; $0.25 Google).

Movie Description
Former high school cheerleading captain Rose (Amy Adams) is a thirty-something single mother who cleans houses for a living. Wanting to send her trouble-making son Oscar to a private school, Rose decides to take her married lover's (Steve Zahn) advice and get into the "lucrative" business of crime scene cleanup with her sister Norah (Emily Blunt).

Take Care [Explicit] ($0.25 Amazon, Google), by Drake, is today's Google Play Music Deal. This one isn't as overtly explicit as the last one; again, if there is a single song you want on it, it's cheaper to just grab the album.

Book Description
On his second proper full-length, 2011’s most popular rapper sings, “I be yelling out, ‘money over everything/ money on my mind’/ then she want to ask when it got so empty.” Drake is the sad sack don, both excited and dizzy from his ascension to the top. He desperately clings to an idea of self, while acknowledging, “you lose some and win some/ as long as the outcome is income.” The lyrics’ interiority is complemented by the music’s understated elegance. Divorced from Drake’s pronouncements that he “never cheated when we were together,” the skeletal drums and ambient synth of “Take a Shot” are spacious and a bit cold. It’s a neat trick, and Take Care is fully realized in its emotional texture and nuance. Sam Chennault, Google Play

Camera ZOOM FX ($0.25 Amazon; Google), by Androidslide, is the Android App of the Day. Since it works with a camera, it isn't Kindle Fire compatible (of course), but if you have an Android tablet or phone, it's well worth getting (and it normally sells for more than its "sale" price of $4.99).

App Description
Camera Zoom FX brings a full set of photography features to your Android device by combining powerful camera functions with stunning post-processing.

Capturing the Moment
Your photo options are endless with Camera Zoom FX, but thanks to its incredibly intuitive and organized interface, your ability to capture the perfect moment quickly won't be hindered by buttons and choices. Shoot now, play later.

Seamless Shooting with Accessible Options
The shooting options are offered along the sidebars of your screen upon launch. Quickly and easily make a change if necessary without searching through endless settings. The left bar offers your zoom scale, focus, flash, and front-facing camera support. The right sidebar offers the shooting mode icon. Tap it to change it. Choose from Normal, Stable Shot, Timer, Burst Mode (capturing multiple shots consecutively), Time Lapse, Collage, and Voice Activation. Take the photo using the shutter button or just tap anywhere on the screen to take advantage of the full-screen shutter.

If you'd like to view your subject through an effect filter, tap the FX icon in the upper right-hand corner. Some effects are disabled in preview mode, but will be enabled once the shot is taken.

Post-processing Options
With more than 90 unique camera effects, and an array of frames, props, grid overlays, and more, your photos will look so good that you'll be tempted to quit your day job.

Bargain Book/Game/Music/Movie Roundup (25 cent Google Deals)

This weekend's coupon code at Fictionwise is 030912 for 45% off. Valid until Sunday (or a few days, thereafter, usually).

Three of the four 25 cent Google deals seem to be exclusives with Google, as I could not find them at Amazon or they were full price: rent Crash ($2.99 Amazon; $0.25 Google), get a strange Android App, Smart Tools, or grab The Rolling Stone's Brussels Affair album for a quarter. I was quite surprised I couldn't find this one at amazon, but I've grabbed the Google version and will just send it to my Amazon Cloud. I also grabbed the free copy of Summer Is The Champion ($0.99 Amazon), by Laura Veirs, on the main Google Music page.

The fourth of the 25 cent Google Play deals is Unfinished Business ($0.25 Kindle, Google), by Nora Roberts

Book Description
What was she doing here? Hyattown had changed very little in the years Vanessa Sexton had been away. In some ways her high school sweetheart, Brady Tucker, hadn't changed much either—he was still lean, athletic, rugged…But the once reckless boy had become a solid, dependable man. He'd stood her up on the most important night of her life; could she ever trust him again?

So Vanessa had finally come home, Brady thought. She could still turn him inside out with one of her sultry looks. He couldn't believe she hadn't forgiven him for that night twelve years ago—but he'd had his reasons for not showing up. He'd let her leave town then—but he wasn't going to let her get away this time…

American Psycho (Picador 40th Anniversary Edition) ($0.32 Kindle Main, £0.20 UK), by Bret Easton Ellis, is the Google Play deal for those in the UK (I can't link to the UK Google site, though).

Book Description
Even before its publication in 1991, American Psycho captured the attention and imagination of readers. Now an acknowledged modern classic and a multimillion-copy bestseller, it continues to be one of the most talked-about books of all time. A film based on the novel, starring Christian Bale, was released in 2000. Patrick Bateman is twenty-six and works on Wall Street; he is handsome, sophisticated, charming and intelligent. He is also a psychopath. Taking us to a head-on collision with America’s greatest dream – and its worst nightmare – American Psycho is a bleak, bitter, black comedy about a world we all recognize but do not wish to confront. In 2012 Picador celebrates its 40th anniversary. During that time we have published many prize-winning and bestselling authors including Bret Easton Ellis and Cormac McCarthy, Alice Sebold and Helen Fielding, Graham Swift and Alan Hollinghurst. Years later, Picador continue to bring readers the very best contemporary fiction, non-fiction and poetry from across the globe.

Switched (Trylle Trilogy 1) ($0.32 Main, £0.20 UK), by Amanda Hocking, is also on sale for those in the UK.

Book Description
Wendy Everly knew she was different the day her mother tried to kill her and accused her of having been switched at birth. Although certain she’s not the monster her mother claimed she is – she does feel that she doesn’t quite fit in . . . The new girl in High School, she’s bored and frustrated by her small town life – and then there’s the secret that she can’t tell anyone. Her mysterious ability – she can influence people’s decisions, without knowing how, or why . . . When the intense and darkly handsome newcomer Finn suddenly turns up at her bedroom window one night – her world is turned upside down. He holds the key to her past, the answers to her strange powers and is the doorway to a place she never imagined could exist. Förening, the home of the Trylle. Everything begins to make sense to Wendy. Among the Trylle, she is not just different, but special. But what marks her out as chosen for greatness in this world also places her in grave danger. With everything around her changing, Finn is the only person she can trust. But dark forces are conspiring – not only to separate them, but to see the downfall everything that Wendy cares about. The fate of Förening rests in Wendy’s hands, and the decisions she and Finn make could change all their lives forever . . .

The Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen ($3.99), by Jacques Pepin. I'd rather have it been one of his cookbooks, but there is a recipe or two at the end of each chapter, according to a review.

Book Description
From the moment of its publication, The Apprentice established itself as an “instant classic” (Anthony Bourdain). With sparkling wit and occasional pathos, the man whom Julia Child has called “the best chef in America” tells the captivating story of his rise from a terrified thirteen-year-old toiling in an Old World French kitchen to an American superstar who ad-libbed and demonstrated culinary wizardry as the cameras rolled — and changed American tastes.

The Apprentice is an engrossing tale of the modern cooking scene and how it came to be, told from an engaging personal perspective. The story begins in prewar France, with young Jacques cutting his teeth in his mother’s small restaurants. Moving to Paris, it offers tantalizing glimpses of Sartre and Genet. In his role as Charles de Gaulle’s personal chef, Jacques witnesses history being made from behind the swinging door of the kitchen.

In America, he rejects an offer to be chef in the Kennedy White House, choosing instead to work at Howard Johnson’s. He then proceeds to make some history of his own, creating a revolution with a band of fellow food lovers: Julia Child, James Beard, and Craig Claiborne. Culinary high jinks and revealing portraits ensue. The Apprentice also includes well-loved recipes, from Maman’s Cheese Soufflé to Chicken Salad r la Danny Kaye.

Fast Food Nation ($3.99), by Eric Schlosser

Book Description
In 2001, Fast Food Nation was published to critical acclaim and became an international bestseller. Eric Schlosser’s exposé revealed how the fast food industry has altered the landscape of America, widened the gap between rich and poor, fueled an epidemic of obesity, and transformed food production throughout the world. The book changed the way millions of people think about what they eat and helped to launch today’s food movement.

In a new afterword for this edition, Schlosser discusses the growing interest in local and organic food, the continued exploitation of poor workers by the food industry, and the need to ensure that every American has access to good, healthy, affordable food. Fast Food Nation is as relevant today as it was a decade ago. The book inspires readers to look beneath the surface of our food system, consider its impact on society and, most of all, think for themselves.

Magic Steps ($3.99 Kindle, Google) is the first title in the Circle Opens YA series by Tamora Pierce.

Book Description
Lady Sandrilene fa Toren knows all about unusual magic--she herself spins and weaves it like thread. But when she witnesses a boy dancing a spell, even she is confounded. To her dismay she gets news of a mysterious murderer stalking a clan of local merchants. The killer employs the strangest magic of all: the ability to reduce essence to nothingness. As the murders mount and the killer grows bolder, Sandry's teaching takes on a grave purpose. It becomes clear to everyone that the killings can only be stopped by the combined magic of two people: the young teacher and her even younger student.

Flawless ($3.99), by Lara Chapman

Book Description
Sarah Burke is just about perfect. She’s got killer blue eyes, gorgeous blond hair, and impeccable grades. There’s just one tiny-all right, enormous-flaw: her nose. But even that’s not so bad. Sarah’s got the best best friend and big goals for print journalism fame.
On the first day of senior year, Rock Conway walks into her journalism class and, well, rocks her world. Problem is, her best friend, Kristen, falls for him too. And when Rock and Kristen stand together, it’s like Barbie and Ken come to life. So when Kristen begs Sarah to help her nab Rock, Sarah does the only thing a best friend can do-she agrees. For someone so smart, what was she thinking?

This hip retelling of Cyrano de Bergerac is filled with hilariously misguided matchmaking, sweet romance, and a gentle reminder that we should all embrace our flaws.

Sunrise Over Fallujah ($3.99 Kindle, Google), by Walter Dean Myers

Book Description
Operation Iraqi Freedom, that's the code name. But the young men and women in the military's Civil Affairs Battalion have a simpler name for it: WAR.

In this new novel, Walter Dean Myers looks at a contemporary war with the same power and searing insight he brought to the Vietnam war of his classic, FALLEN ANGELS. He creates memorable characters like the book's narrator, Birdy, a young recruit from Harlem who's questioning why he even enlisted; Marla, a blond, tough-talking, wisecracking gunner; Jonesy, a guitar-playing bluesman who just wants to make it back to Georgia and open a club; and a whole unit of other young men and women and drops them incountry in Iraq, where they are supposed to help secure and stabilize Iraq and successfully interact with the Iraqi people. The young civil affairs soldiers soon find their definition of "winning" ever more elusive and their good intentions being replaced by terms like "survival" and "despair."

Caught in the crossfire, Myers' richly rendered characters are just beginning to understand the meaning of war in this powerful, realistic novel of our times.

Lone Star ($0.99) is the first title in the Edna Ferber Mysteries by Edward Ifkovic and another of the Poisoned Pen Press discounts for the month.

Book Description
It’s 1955, and Edna Ferber is basking in the success of her blockbuster novel Giant. Headed to Los Angeles, where director George Stevens and Warner Brothers Studio are in the final days of filming her Texas oil epic, she is looking forward to meeting Rock Hudson, Liz Taylor, and especially the young James Dean.

But there is trouble brewing. Dean, the new box-office sensation and teen heartthrob, has been accused of fathering a child with an unstable (and recently fired) extra named Carisa Krausse. The studio fears the negative publicity will jeopardize the release of the movie. Then the actress is murdered, and James Dean is the prime suspect. He was seen at her apartment moments before Carisa’s death. The police are ready to arrest him.

With actress Mercedes McCambridge as her sympathetic sidekick, Edna investigates, determined to clear Dean’s name. Soon Edna finds herself exploring the troubled lives of Dean’s circle of disparate friends. As she delves into Hollywood’s dark side she discovers a powerful studio obsessed with a cover-up and a solution she doesn’t want to accept—a solution that she, in fact, dreads.

Still Missing ($2.99 Kindle, Google), by Chevy Stevens

Book Description
On the day she was abducted, Annie O’Sullivan, a thirty-two year old realtor, had three goals—sell a house, forget about a recent argument with her mother, and be on time for dinner with her ever- patient boyfriend. The open house is slow, but when her last visitor pulls up in a van as she's about to leave, Annie thinks it just might be her lucky day after all. Interwoven with the story of the year Annie spent as the captive of psychopath in a remote mountain cabin, which unfolds through sessions with her psychiatrist, is a second narrative recounting events following her escape—her struggle to piece her shattered life back together and the ongoing police investigation into the identity of her captor.

The truth doesn’t always set you free.

Still Missing is that rare debut find--a shocking, visceral, brutal and beautifully crafted debut novel.

The English Major ($7.99/$9.99 Kindle, $3.99 Google), by Jim Harrison, has two editions on Kindle, but neither one is marked down like the Google edition is (B&N has one edition, but at $8.80, it splits the difference in price for the two Kindle editions). I'm reporting the lower price at Google on both editions, in hopes that one of the will drop.

Book Description
"It used to be Cliff and Vivian and now it isn't." With these words, Jim Harrison sends his sixty-something protagonist, divorced and robbed of his farm by a late-blooming real estate shark of an ex-wife, on a road trip across America, armed with a childhood puzzle of the United States and a mission to rename all the states and state birds to overcome the banal names men have given them. Cliff's adventures take him through a whirlwind affair with a former student from his high school-teacher days twenty-some years before, to a "snake farm" in Arizona owned by an old classmate; and to the high-octane existence of his son, a big-time movie producer in San Francisco.

The English Major is the map of a man's journey into—and out of—himself, and it is vintage Harrison—reflective, big-picture American, and replete with wicked wit.

The Ragtime Kid ($0.99) is the first title in the Ragtime Mystery Trilogy by Larry Karp

Book Description
Brun Campbell, a 15-year-old piano-playing fool, hears Scott Joplin’s “Maple Leaf Rag” played one 1898 afternoon in Oklahoma City. It’s destiny calling. Asking for ragtime lessons, he’s told, “No, Ragtime is colored music.” So Brun runs away from the family farm to Sedalia, Missouri, to persuade Joplin to take him on as a pupil. What Brun doesn’t expect is to trip over the body of a young woman. He thoughtlessly picks up a couple of items before he rushes away from the murder scene.

When Edward Fitzgerald, a man who befriended Brun his first night in town, is arrested for the woman’s murder, Brun is certain he’s innocent. But if the boy shows anyone the things he pocketed at the scene—things he now knows belonged to Scott Joplin—he’ll point the finger at the composer...and himself.
Brun decides to get Fitzgerald, Joplin, and himself off the hook by finding the real killer, but for that he eventually needs some help from Dr. Overstreet, the alcoholic town mayor; and John Stark, a man pushing sixty, who’s been employing Brun at his music store.

Sedalia is rife with suspects, some of them opportunists bent on stealing Joplin’s music. And then there are the girls and women—mysteries to Brun—like a teenager seized with religious fever, a couple of mischievous prostitutes, and an attractive, ambitious young woman with a hint of scarlet in her past, who further complicate his pursuit of the killer.

Google Play 25 Cent Specials

It looks like my earlier find of Coldplay's Mylo Xyloto (Amazon/Google) is going to be today's 25 cent album. The movie rental today is American Psycho ($2.99 Amazon; $0.25 Google), starring Christian Bale, Justin Theroux.

We Need to Talk About Kevin ($0.25 Kindle; Google), by Lionel Shriver, is today's 25 cent book special from Google. Amazon has already price matched, but don't expect it to last more than a day. It looks somewhat interesting and at a quarter, I'm grabbing to to look thru later on.

Book Description
That neither nature nor nurture bears exclusive responsibility for a child's character is self-evident. But generalizations about genes are likely to provide cold comfort if it's your own child who just opened fire on his feellow algebra students and whose class photograph—with its unseemly grin—is shown on the evening news coast-to-coast.

If the question of who's to blame for teenage atrocity intrigues news-watching voyeurs, it tortures our narrator, Eva Khatchadourian. Two years before the opening of the novel, her son, Kevin, murdered seven of his fellow high school students, a cafeteria worker, and the much-beloved teacher who had tried to befriend him. Because his sixteenth birthday arrived two days after the killings, he received a lenient sentence and is currently in a prison for young offenders in upstate New York.

In relating the story of Kevin's upbringing, Eva addresses her estranged husband, Frank, through a series of startingly direct letters. Fearing that her own shortcomings may have shaped what her son became, she confesses to a deep, long-standing ambivalence about both motherhood in general—and Kevin in particular. How much is her fault?

We Need To Talk About Kevin offers no at explanations for why so many white, well-to-do adolescents—whether in Pearl, Paducah, Springfield, or Littleton—have gone nihilistically off the rails while growing up in the most prosperous country in history. Instead, Lionel Shriver tells a compelling, absorbing, and resonant story with an explosive, haunting ending. She considers motherhood, marriage, family, career—while framing these horrifying tableaus of teenage carnage as metaphors for the larger tragedy of a country where everything works, nobody starves, and anything can be bought but a sense of purpose.

Today's 25 app is Paper Camera (Amazon, Google). This would be a lot more fun if the Kindle Fire had a camera, but it works fine on my phone and tablet (both of which have cameras).

App Description
Paper camera offers a camera filter that transforms your reality into more than just a photo. Using your camera video feed, view the world just the way an artist would recreate it--all in real time. Like what you see? Take a picture; it lasts longer.

What You See Isn't What You Get
Upon launching Paper Camera, immediately see what's in front of you through the video feed, but expect it to look like a cartoon world, artist's sketch, or unique digital creation. Scroll through the many lens filters and experience your reality like you've never seen it before.

Life as Art
Watch the world as you know it transform. Choose from unique camera filters not typical in a camera app such as, Granny's Paper, Pastel Perfect, Comic Boom, Sketch Up, Acquarello, Old Printer, Neon Cola, Con Tours, Bleaching, and Gotham Noir.

Through a Paper Frame
The camera options are displayed along the wrinkled edge of your Paper Camera screen. Use the sketched arrows to move through your many filter options, and watch as each alters your reality in real time. Use the sliding scales to adjust the contrast, brightness, and lines to create the exact look you prefer.

Capture and Share a New World
Take multiple photos in as many filters as you like by tapping the red camera sketch in the lower right-hand corner. Each shot is automatically saved to your device's photo gallery after a brief display on the screen. Choose the small share icon in the upper right-hand corner to share the last photo taken. Enjoy your creative quest through the lens of a paper camera.

Bargain Book/Game/Music/Movie Roundup

Today's Google Play video rental for 25 cents is Vicky Cristina Barcelona starring Rebecca Hall, Scarlett Johansson (it's $3.99 at Amazon). I watched Puncture yesterday on my tablet and it was OK - it's a pain to have to hold it the entire movie (and watching on the phone results in a hot phone and dead battery), but I may try plugging it into the TV to see how that works (the one other time I tried this, the resolution simply wasn't as good as even using the Roku box). Until Google fixes up a channel on either the TV or Roku box, though, I don't know that I'd recommend them for most movie watching, unless you always watch on your laptop, which is what I'll probably try for the next one, it's just a lot more of a pain to hook it up to the TV so more than one person can see it). At least this movie has a 30 day period to start watching it (I think, from reading the page), instead of the ridiculous 24 period the last one had.

Kitchen Confidential ($0.25 Kindle, Google), by Anthony Bourdain, is today's Google Play Deal of the Day, and Amazon is price matching it (just double check the price before clicking, as I had to refresh a couple of times to see the price). I already have this in mobi format, but for a quarter I'm buying it again at Amazon, so it'll be back up in my library.

Book Description
Kitchen Confidential reveals what Bourdain calls "twenty-five years of sex, drugs, bad behavior and haute cuisine."

Last summer, The New Yorker published Chef Bourdain’s shocking, "Don’t Eat Before Reading This." Bourdain spared no one’s appetite when he told all about what happens behind the kitchen door. Bourdain uses the same "take-no-prisoners" attitude in his deliciously funny and shockingly delectable book, sure to delight gourmands and philistines alike. From Bourdain’s first oyster in the Gironde, to his lowly position as dishwasher in a honky tonk fish restaurant in Provincetown (where he witnesses for the first time the real delights of being a chef); from the kitchen of the Rainbow Room atop Rockefeller Center, to drug dealers in the east village, from Tokyo to Paris and back to New York again, Bourdain’s tales of the kitchen are as passionate as they are unpredictable. Kitchen Confidential will make your mouth water while your belly aches with laughter. You’ll beg the chef for more, please.

Lady Antebellum's Own The Night ($0.25 Amazon; Google) album is today's MP3 Deal of the Day from Google. The Amazon version includes the digital booklet (although you can get it at the same price, without the booklet).

Book Description
After you've conquered the world, what do you do for a follow-up? In the wake of Lady Antebellum's 2010 blockbuster, Need You Now, the trio's third album finds the group untroubled by that question. Lady A sagely stays the course, mixing post-Sugarland radio-ready anthems with dashes of R&B, roots rock and '70s singer-songwriter influences. Those who started calling them "the country Fleetwood Mac" when they first appeared will have little reason to alter that appellation, as Charles Kelley, Dave Haywood and Hillary Scott continue to blend their voices and songwriting skills seamlessly on slow-burning tear-jerkers ("Dancin' Away with My Heart") and up-tempo jukebox fodder ("Friday Night") alike, with expertly baited hooks to spare. Jim Allen, Google Play

Quell Reflect ($0.25 Amazon; Google), by Fallen Tree Games, is today's App Deal from Google Play, price matched at Amazon. I'm not sure how it works, but it does have almost all 5-star reviews at Amazon (and hey, with all three of these, I've still spent less than a buck today, so why not). It is compatible with most devices at Amazon (my phone, tablet and Kindle Fire), so that's where I'll go this time for this one

Book Description
Play a charming zen puzzler that is sure to test your brain and capture your heart. Quell Reflect has more than 80 levels of ingenious gameplay, a gorgeous art style, and a haunting soundtrack.

The objective is simple: Slide a droplet around a layout of obstacles, traps and pathways, until you have collected all the pearls. Underneath this simple gameplay lies a world of intricacy.

Quell Reflect's appeal lies in its gentle, soothing mood, which makes it a great way to unwind.

While browsing the 49 cent apps page at Google, I also ran into Jamie's 20 Minute Meals ($0.49 Amazon, Google), by Zolmo, which normally sells for $7.99 according to Amazon. This is essentially a 60-recipe cookbook featuring Jamie Oliver, complete with videos to show you how to cook. If you missed this when it was free last summer, then definitely grab it now, if you are able to do so (you have to have Android device registered at Amazon or Google or they won't let you purchase). It's also a shame you can't gift the apps, as this is a perfect one to give college kids or new grads and works on phones, tablets or the Kindle fire. There's some other deals on that 49 cent page you might want to check out, such as Business Calendar (usually $5), TuneIn Radio Pro and a number of games and even a kids book. Most of them are also at Amazon and appear to be price matching (at least, for now).

Book Description
Who can help but be charmed by England's Jamie Oliver, The Naked Chef? Jamie is well known as chef, restaurateur, and an advocate for improving unhealthy diets, especially championing healthy school lunches for children.

Watch an introductory video from Jamie and get right to the recipes. Search for a recipe or peruse 10 categories such as Delicious soups, Tasty stir-fries, and Simple risottos. Each recipe includes a summary with a picture of the dish, an ingredient and equipment list, detailed instructions, and relevant videos on tasks like garlic preparation or onion chopping. Double-touch the screen in landscape mode to see pictures of each step.

Add ingredients to your list and then use the general shopping list to view by recipe or by aisle. Use the menu to quickly access any video or learn about what Jamie feels are kitchen essentials -- both ingredients and equipment. Jamie promises that this app will "arm you with the confidence" to have tasty meals in 20 minutes!

Liar, Liar ($0.99), the first title in the Cat DeLuca Mysteries series by K.J. Larsen, is one of Poison Pen Press' sale books this month (still full price at Google, though).

Book Description
Burned by her run-around ex-husband Johnnie Ricco, Caterina DeLuca took the skills she mastered during marriage and opened her own private eye agency. Now she’s a second-story woman, armed with a camera, ready to print 8x10 glossies for use in divorce court.

The men in her big, whacko family, all Chicago cops—one a crook—aren’t sure what to make of Cat’s career choice. But hey, it’s serve and protect!

Then one Rita Polansky retains Cat. Rita’s liar-liar husband is the mysterious, but seriously hot, Chance Savino. Cat is hot on his heels when an exploding building hurls her out of her stilettos and into the hospital. The FBI claims Chance was killed in the fireworks, but concussed Cat remembers a different scenario.

She escapes the hospital to meet with her client. But when Rita doesn’t show, Cat breaks into her home to find Rita with a knife in her chest and two clues at the murder scene: a clutch of candy wrappers and Chance Savino, rummaging through Rita’s drawers.

One surprise after another piles up. As no one else sights Savino, everyone around Cat thinks she’s crazy. Everyone except a determined killer who has put her on his “kill” list.

I've been watching for The Cake Mix Doctor Bakes Gluten-Free ($3.99 Kindle, Google), by Anne Byrn, to go on sale and was starting to think that it never would.

Book Description
Thirty million Americans are gluten-intolerant or have a gluten sensitivity, eliminating it from their diets because gluten—a protein found in wheat, rye, and barley—has been implicated in health issues ranging from respiratory problems and abdominal discomfort to anemia, anxiety, and infertility. The food industry has bullishly taken notice. Gluten-free baking products, including cake mixes from Betty Crocker, King Arthur, Whole Foods, and others, have increased sevenfold on grocery shelves in recent years, and the number of other gluten-free products has grown as well—832 were introduced in 2008 alone. And gluten-free options are on the menu of national restaurants like Boston Market, Chili’s, Ruby Tuesday, Outback Steakhouse, and others.

Now comes even sweeter news for people looking to cut gluten from their diets: Anne Byrn shows how to transform gluten-free cake mixes into 76 rich, decadent, easy-to-make, impossible-to-resist desserts. Performing the magic that’s made her a bestselling baking author with over 33 million copies of her books in print, she doctors mixes with additions like almond extract, fresh berries, cocoa powder, grated coconut, cinnamon, lime zest, and more—naturally, all gluten-free ingredients—and voilà: Tres Leches Cake with Whipped Cream and Summer Berries, Almond Cream Cheese Pound Cake, Chocolate Cupcakes with Milk Chocolate Ganache, Caramel Melted Ice Cream Cake, Warm Tarte Tatin Apple Cake, plus brownies, bars, muffins, and cookies. Dessert is back on the menu.

I picked up Thunder Dog: The True Story Of A Blind Man, His Guide Dog, And The Triumph Of Trust At Ground Zero ($3.99 Kindle, Google), by Michael Hingson, during one of the earlier sales at Amazon and have finished about a third of it and can recommend it from what I've read so far.

Book Description
Faith. Trust. Triumph.

"I trust Roselle with my life, every day. She trusts me to direct her. And today is no different, except the stakes are higher." - Michael Hingson

First came the boom- the loud, deep, unapologetic bellow that seemed to erupt from the very core of the earth. Eerily, the majestic high-rise slowly leaned to the south. On the seventy-eighth floor of the World Trade Center's north tower, no alarms sounded, and no one had information about what had happened at 8:46 a.m. on September 11, 2001- what should have been a normal workday for thousands of people. All that was known to the people inside was what they could see out the windows: smoke and fire and millions of pieces of burning paper and other debris falling through the air.

Blind since birth, Michael couldn't see a thing, but he could hear the sounds of shattering glass, falling debris, and terrified people flooding around him and his guide dog, Roselle. However, Roselle sat calmly beside him. In that moment, Michael chose to trust Roselle's judgment and not to panic. They are a team.

Thunder Dog allows you entry into the isolated, fume-filled chamber of stairwell B to experience survival through the eyes of a blind man and his beloved guide dog. Live each moment from the second a Boeing 767 hits the north tower, to the harrowing stairwell escape, to dodging death a second time as both towers fold into the earth.

It's the 9/11 story that will forever change your spirit and your perspective. Thunder Dog illumiates Hingson's lifelong determination to achieve parity in a sighted world, and how the rare trust between a man and his guide dog can inspire an unshakable faith in each one of us.

Murder in Mykonos ($0.99), the first novel in the Inspector Kaldis series by Jeffrey Siger, is another Poisoned Pen Press published title.

Book Description
A young woman on holiday on Mykonos, the most famous of Greece’s Aegean Cycladic islands, simply disappears off the face of the earth. And no one notices.

When politically incorrect, hot-shot detective Andreas Kaldis is promoted out of Athens to serve as police chief for Greece’s island paradise of Mykonos, he’s certain his homicide days are over. Murders don’t happen in tourist heaven; at least that’s what he’s thinking as he stares at the remains of a young woman found ritually bound and buried on a pile of human bones inside a remote mountain church.

Teamed with the canny, nearly-retired local homicide chief, Andreas tries to find the killer before the media can destroy the island’s fabled reputation with a barrage of world-wide attention on a mystery that’s haunted Mykonos undetected for decades.

Just when it seems things can’t get any worse, another young woman disappears and political niceties no longer matter. With the investigation now a rescue operation, Andreas finds himself plunging into ancient myths and forgotten island places, racing against a killer intent on claiming a new victim who is herself determined to outstep him.

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic ($3.99 Kindle, Google), by Alison Bechdel

Book Description
A fresh and brilliantly told memoir from a cult favorite comic artist, marked by gothic twists, a family funeral home, sexual angst, and great books.

This breakout book by Alison Bechdel is a darkly funny family tale, pitch-perfectly illustrated with Bechdel's sweetly gothic drawings. Like Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis, it's a story exhilaratingly suited to graphic memoir form.

Meet Alison's father, a historic preservation expert and obsessive restorer of the family's Victorian home, a third-generation funeral home director, a high school English teacher, an icily distant parent, and a closeted homosexual who, as it turns out, is involved with his male students and a family babysitter. Through narrative that is alternately heartbreaking and fiercely funny, we are drawn into a daughter's complex yearning for her father. And yet, apart from assigned stints dusting caskets at the family-owned "fun home," as Alison and her brothers call it, the relationship achieves its most intimate expression through the shared code of books. When Alison comes out as homosexual herself in late adolescense, the denouement is swift, graphic -- and redemptive.

Skinny Bitch: A No-Nonsense, Tough-Love Guide for Savvy Girls Who Want to Stop Eating Crap and Start Looking Fabulous ($3.99 Kindle, Google), by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin, is not the diet book for those who want their hands held!

Book Description
Not your typical boring diet book, this is a tart-tongued, no-holds-barred wakeup call to all women who want to be thin. With such blunt advice as, "Soda is liquid Satan" and "You are a total moron if you think the Atkins Diet will make you thin," it's a rallying cry for all savvy women to start eating healthy and looking radiant. Unlike standard diet books, it actually makes the reader laugh out loud with its truthful, smart-mouthed revelations. Behind all the attitude, however, there's solid guidance. Skinny Bitch espouses a healthful lifestyle that promotes whole grains, fruits, and vegetables, and encourages women to get excited about feeling "clean and pure and energized."

Highland Protector ($3.49 Kindle, Google), by Hannah Howell

Book Description
The Murrays are back! From New York Times bestselling author Hannah Howell comes an all-new story of the beloved Scottish family, and two lovers entangled in a plot against the king. . .

Someone would see Ilsabeth Murray Armstrong hang for murder.

When her dagger is found buried in the body of one of the king's men, there is little room for doubt--the perpetrator must pay with her life. But Ilsabeth is no killer, and only one person can help clear her name: Sir Simon Innes, a man so steely and cool that no danger can rattle him. . .and no woman in distress can sway his heart.

Until now. Simon has spent his life searching for truth in a world fraught with deception. But the hauntingly beautiful fugitive seeking his aid affects him so deeply, he wonders if he can trust the flawless judgment he has always relied on. For all signs point to Ilsabeth's guilt, except one--the unparalleled desire he feels at her slightest touch. . .

The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale Of True Love And High Adventure ($3.99 Kindle, Google), by William Goldman

Book Description
William Goldman's modern fantasy classic is a simple, exceptional story about quests—for riches, revenge, power, and, of course, true love—that's thrilling and timeless.

Anyone who lived through the 1980s may find it impossible—inconceivable, even—to equate The Princess Bride with anything other than the sweet, celluloid romance of Westley and Buttercup, but the film is only a fraction of the ingenious storytelling you'll find in these pages. Rich in character and satire, the novel is set in 1941 and framed cleverly as an “abridged” retelling of a centuries-old tale set in the fabled country of Florin that's home to “Beasts of all natures and descriptions. Pain. Death. Brave men. Coward men. Strongest men. Chases. Escapes. Lies. Truths. Passions.”

Once upon a time came a story so full of high adventure and true love that it became an instant classic and won the hearts of millions. Now in hardcover in America for the first time since 1973, this special edition of The Princess Bride is a true keepsake for devoted fans as well as those lucky enough to discover it for the first time. What reader can forget or resist such colorful characters as

Westley . . . handsome farm boy who risks death and much, much worse for the woman he loves; Inigo . . . the Spanish swordsman who lives only to avenge his father's death; Fezzik . . . the Turk, the gentlest giant ever to have uprooted a tree with his bare hands; Vizzini . . . the evil Sicilian, with a mind so keen he's foiled by his own perfect logic; Prince Humperdinck . . . the eviler ruler of Guilder, who has an equally insatiable thirst for war and the beauteous Buttercup; Count Rugen . . . the evilest man of all, who thrives on the excruciating pain of others; Miracle Max. . . the King's ex-Miracle Man, who can raise the dead (kind of); The Dread Pirate Roberts . . . supreme looter and plunderer of the high seas; and, of course, Buttercup . . . the princess bride, the most perfect, beautiful woman in the history of the world.

S. Morgenstern's timeless tale--discovered and wonderfully abridged by William Goldman--pits country against country, good against evil, love against hate. From the Cliffs of Insanity through the Fire Swamp and down into the Zoo of Death, this incredible journey and brilliant tale is peppered with strange beasties monstrous and gentle, and memorable surprises both terrible and sublime.

The Book of Man: Readings on the Path to Manhood ($3.99 Kindle, Google), by William J. Bennett

Book Description
WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A MAN

Raising up men has never been easy, but today is seems particularly tough. The young and old need heroes to embody the eternal qualities of manhood: honor, duty, valor, and integrity. In The Book of Man, William J. Bennett points the way, offering a positive, encouraging, uplifting, realizable idea of manhood, redolent of history and human nature, and practical for contemporary life.

Using profiles, stories, letters, poems, essays, historical vignettes, and myths to bring his subject to life, The Book of Man defines what a man should be, how he should live, and to what he should aspire in several key areas of life: war, work, leisure, and more. "Whether we take up the sword, the plow, the ball, the gavel, our children, or our Bibles," says Bennett, "we must always do it like the men we are called to be." The Book of Man shows how.

Dry Bones ($0.99), the first title in The Enzo Files by Scottish author Peter May, was originally published under the title Extraordinary People.

Book Description
What has happened to Jacques Gaillard? The brilliant teacher who trained some of France’s best and brightest as future Prime Ministers and Presidents at the École Nationale d’Administration vanished ten years ago, presumably from Paris. Talk about your cold case.

The mystery inspires a bet, one that Enzo Macleod, a biologist teaching in Toulouse instead of pursuing a brilliant career in forensics back home in Scotland, can ill afford to lose. The wager is that Enzo can find out what happened to Jacques Gaillard by applying new science to an old case.

Enzo comes to Paris to meet journalist Roger Raffin, the author of a book on seven celebrated unsolved murders. The assumption is that Gaillard is dead. Armed with Raffin’s notes, Enzo begins his quest. It quickly has him touring landmarks like the Paris catacombs. Then Enzo finds Jacques Gaillard’s head.

The artifacts buried with the skull set him to interpreting the clues they provide and to following in someone’s footsteps after the rest of Gaillard. He must also review some ancient and recent history. As with any quest, it’s as much discovery as detection. Enzo proves to be an ace investigator, scientific and intuitive, and, for all his missteps, one who hits his goals, including a painful journey toward greater self-awareness.

Mew is for Murder ($0.99) is the first in the Theda Krakow Mysteries series by Clea Simon

Book Description
Theda Krakow is in a funk. Her sometime boyfriend’s gone for good. The death of her beloved cat opened a bigger void. And the career leap she’s made from copy editor to freelance writer has left her finances—and her spirit—flat. She desperately needs a headline to get her life back on track.

One day, out for a stroll in her Cambridge neighborhood, Theda spies an adorable stray kitten. This charmer leads Theda to an old woman holed up in a decrepit house full of cats. Is this one of those “crazy cat ladies,” a classic hoarder, or is the old woman a neighborhood do-gooder? More important: is this the story to catapult Theda out of the dumps? But when she returns to interview Lillian Helmhold, Theda finds her fascinating subject dead of an apparent accident. The neighbors are celebrating, the police aren’t interested, and the cats are removed to a shelter. End of story? Not for Theda—one or two things don’t compute. So Theda marshals her investigative journalism skills to turn gumshoe.

Why is the purple-haired punk Violet, a barista at Theda’s favorite coffee house, hanging around Lillian’s home? Then there’s Lillian’s neighbor who’s only too anxious to clean up an eyesore. What’s the story on Lillian’s disturbed son? Theda’s inquiries lead her from a halfway house in the hills of Western Massachusetts back to Boston’s happening rock scene. Enter a music-loving artist, the one who jumpstarts Theda’s pulse. He’s handsome, he’s interested—but is he a bit too mysterious? Theda’s quiet life, her heart, and her bank account are about to be shaken to the core.